Adorning hair with accessories to enhance personal appearance especially by women is a tradition and practice in many cultures and societies around the world. For women and even some men who let their hair grow long, the main challenge is trying to keep their long hair manageable and away from their faces. The generally practiced methods of managing long hair have been either, gathering the hair and putting it up in a bun at the top back of the head, braiding, or tying up all the hair with a band or ribbon into a single length of hair, popularly referred to as a pony tail. Among all the means used to manage long hair, the most popular one has been, and is even today, the ponytail.
The pony tail method of managing long hair has evolved from one that used to be draped and hung loosely behind the neck and back as was commonly practiced by women from the 18th century, to one that is now held up high behind the back of the head using a band or ribbon and is considered a fashionable way to wear long hair. In an attempt to display the pony tail as a fashion statement, pony tail holders in a variety of styles, shapes, sizes and designs are currently marketed with success. However, the focus of these ponytail holders is to provide a means to show-case the long hair without changing the appearance of the structure of the hair in a pony tail.
Along with the change in style of the once humble pony tail, there has been a clamor to find innovative means to create volume, thickness and fullness to the pony tail hair. This need is more pronounced for individuals who have fine and sparse hair on their scalp because when such hair is tied up into a pony tail in the backs of their head, the pony tail tends to appear limp and unattractive. Some prior art describe hair accessories placed over the pony tail to create the appearance of a fuller pony tail as for instance the accessory described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,963,289 to, King. This accessory is visible when placed over the pony tail. The pony tail enhancer described in U.S. Pat. Appl. Pub. No. 2012/0138077 (Stuhler) uses a band to hold the device in place. U.S. Pat. No. 7,017,589 to, Minnelli describes a comb with a plurality of teeth and a roof portion inserted between the pony tail hairs to enhance the pony tail. In this device, the roof portion holding up the hair has a substantially smooth surface which will make the hair draped over it, slide off to the side and in all directions when the person is active or when the wind blows over the hair, thereby, exposing the roof portion of the device.
There is a need in the art for a pony tail enhancer that overcomes the deficiencies in the prior art devices. The, pony tail enhancer of the present invention has arrow-shaped dowels protruding from the appendage on which the hair rests to prevent the hair from sliding off the device and therefore, is an improvement over the prior art described. Further, the device of the present invention, has a sturdier clip part that will engage the hair more firmly than the tooth combs used in the prior art. The present invention thus overcomes a deficiency in the prior art for a pony tail enhancer that is functional and more effective in providing, fuller, thicker pony tails.